Looking Ahead to 2012 Husker Football: I-Backs

by Husker Mike on Jan 9, 2012 12:44 PM CST in 2012 Nebraska Huskers Football

Our look at 2012 moves to I-backs, where all-Big Ten Rex Burkhead returns for his senior season

Returning: Rex Burkhead (starter), Sr.; Ameer Abdullah, So; Aaron Green, So.; Braylon Heard, So.; Zach Taylor, So.; Collins Okafor, Sr.

Incoming: None

Andy: Rex Burkhead comma.

Mike: Don't you mean, Rex Burkhead period? Seriously, Burkhead is absolutely solid, and a sure NFL pick as a third-down back. He's not a game-breaker, but he'll kill you by getting an extra two or three yards (or more) nearly every carry. But what about the backups? Ameer Abdullah saw most of the action with modest results...and a tendency to fumble. Aaron Green saw some spot duty and caught a few passes. Braylon Heard looked really good earlier in the season and got hurt. In this world where players transfer all the time looking for opportunities, will all three be in Lincoln next season? I hope so, but I wouldn't be so surprised if one looks elsewhere.

Jon: There really wasn't enough playing time for the young guys to get a feel for which one might be better than the others. We can speculate that Abdullah would be the guy, but that's all it would be - speculation. Nebraska will go into 2012 in the same way it went into 2011 - Burkhead and then these other guys.

So what do you think about "these other guys"? Will this be something to watch this spring?

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I think Aaron Green will separate himself as the backup RB

Ameer Abdullah will still be on the field, but mostly to return kicks. I’d like to see them give Jamal Turner a chance at punt returns though. As for Braylon Heard…well if he can stick around another year I think he’ll definitely get a good amount of work his junior and senior years.

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by Billgrip on Jan 9, 2012 12:55 PM CST reply actions

Me, obviously.

Play for the love of the game. A Cornhusker through feast or famine. That's the Nebraska way.

by Salt Creek and Stadium on Jan 9, 2012 12:57 PM CST reply actions

Swing and a miss on the cancel button there.

Play for the love of the game. A Cornhusker through feast or famine. That's the Nebraska way.

by Salt Creek and Stadium on Jan 9, 2012 12:58 PM CST up reply actions

I too think Aaron Green will separate himself

And you’ll see a healthy Heard come back and make a push for #2, past Abdullah. I think Abdullah has Kick Returner locked up giving him his. Unfortunately, his lack of pass blocking ability will allow Heard to jump him in the rotation. Fumbles are a no-no as well. I am certainly glad that Brown is in charge of this group. He had a lot of talent at his disposal and he better than anyone on staff can develop these guys into terrors for any defense!

by NotYourNormalHuskerfan on Jan 9, 2012 3:08 PM CST reply actions

I think you forgot Mike Marrow.

Play for the love of the game. A Cornhusker through feast or famine. That's the Nebraska way.

by Salt Creek and Stadium on Jan 9, 2012 3:21 PM CST reply actions

true

good point

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by Jon Johnston on Jan 9, 2012 3:24 PM CST up reply actions

I guess I expect Marrow to be a fullback...

So that’s why I omitted him on this…

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by Husker Mike on Jan 9, 2012 7:09 PM CST via mobile up reply actions

At Nebraska, aren't they basically the same thing?

I mean, if Marrow used to be an RB, I suspect we’ll see a lot more fullback runs if indeed he moves to FB.

But I see your point.

Play for the love of the game. A Cornhusker through feast or famine. That's the Nebraska way.

by Salt Creek and Stadium on Jan 9, 2012 7:50 PM CST up reply actions

Fairly deep group still

I know we expected big things from the freshmen trio, and they only got so many carries. Still, Rex kind of was the man this year. Hard to take the ball away from him. I hope that another year in the training room along with the aforementioned coaching from Brown will make this group deadly. Just hang on to the ball…

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by KennardHusker on Jan 9, 2012 3:41 PM CST reply actions

I think we kind of had to lean on Burkhead too. So much youth on our offense.

Play for the love of the game. A Cornhusker through feast or famine. That's the Nebraska way.

by Salt Creek and Stadium on Jan 9, 2012 7:51 PM CST up reply actions

I don't

care who gets the carries as long as they can hold on the the damn ball. Red zone fumbles are killers and we have had way to many the last few years. Burkhead is a workhorse but lacks the home run threat so we need a speedster to step up run well and most importantly NOT FUMBLE THE DAMN BALL!!!!!!!!!!

by Huzkerfan on Jan 9, 2012 8:04 PM CST reply actions

I'm curious - does someone have the numbers for Nebraska's balls on the ground?

Because I don’t think we fumbled as much this season.

Play for the love of the game. A Cornhusker through feast or famine. That's the Nebraska way.

by Salt Creek and Stadium on Jan 9, 2012 10:44 PM CST up reply actions

I think it's physically impossible

to fumble as much as we did in 2010.

by Lake_show on Jan 10, 2012 10:03 AM CST up reply actions

OH BUT SIR IT IS.

I just would only wish such numbers on our enemies.

Play for the love of the game. A Cornhusker through feast or famine. That's the Nebraska way.

by Salt Creek and Stadium on Jan 10, 2012 2:16 PM CST up reply actions

32 fumbles with 11 lost

compared to opponents 16 with 8 lost.

by JimmytheRed on Jan 10, 2012 2:55 PM CST up reply actions

Is that high for an option-based offense?

Play for the love of the game. A Cornhusker through feast or famine. That's the Nebraska way.

by Salt Creek and Stadium on Jan 10, 2012 4:36 PM CST up reply actions

Of those eleven

at least three were moment daggers. The Michigan kickoff return in our red zone, Northwestern in their red zone, South Carolina in their red zone. All three provided massive moment switches for the opponents in those games when they were still up for grabs. Their was probably more but off the top of my head those three stick out in my mind. I may be wrong but it seems in our losses the past couple of seasons red zone turnovers have been a major contributing factor.

by Huzkerfan on Jan 11, 2012 8:32 PM CST up reply actions

Every team has those problems.

And for us, that’s the mark of an offense constantly in flux combined with a youth movement on offense.

2009, 2010 and 2011 were all experiments in offense. 2009 we experimented with the EVERYONE BUT JOE GANZ offense. 2010 we had the TAYLOR MARTINEZ IS REALLY FAST BUT WHAT DO WE DO WITH THIS? offense.

And this season we had Beck’s Master’s work in “Football Offense”. He’ll graduate with a degree next season.

Play for the love of the game. A Cornhusker through feast or famine. That's the Nebraska way.

by Salt Creek and Stadium on Jan 12, 2012 10:53 AM CST up reply actions

When

will it get out of flux? Hopefully it will be next year. Unfortunatley that sounds very familiar.

by Huzkerfan on Jan 13, 2012 8:59 PM CST up reply actions

Tomorrow, tomorrow, there's always tomorrow! Tomorrow's just a day away!

/weeps

Play for the love of the game. A Cornhusker through feast or famine. That's the Nebraska way.

by Salt Creek and Stadium on Jan 15, 2012 1:11 PM CST up reply actions

As much as I love Rex

the numbers show that the young-ins should have had a few more carries.
Rex had 46% of the rushing attempts, but only 48% of the yards and 48% of the TDs. The yards and TD percentages are usually much higher for #1 backs than the percentage of the carries they got compared to the rest of the team. And he avg 4.8 yards per carry vs 4.6 for the rest of the team.

Am I saying “Bench Rex!”? Dear god no! just saying the Freshmen should have had a few more carries throughout each game so Rex could get a breather and then maybe got more out of his fewer carries late in the game. Or get the man in the Wildcat with a couple of the freshmen as RB or wingback and let him chose when to give it to them.

by brutus1382 on Jan 9, 2012 11:53 PM CST reply actions

48% of the yards?

That just can’t be correct. Are you using Martinez’s rushing yards to factor that? Among RB’s, not Martinez, Rex has to have 90% of the yards…

by Conspiracy* on Jan 10, 2012 10:17 PM CST up reply actions

Stable of backs

I am sure we cannot hold onto all the RBs we have in the stable. After spring ball I’d ask one of them to redshirt.

No doubt we have talent back there. I think Abdullah has the 2nd on early lock until someone else challenges him.

by Conspiracy* on Jan 10, 2012 2:02 PM CST reply actions

Actually Rex had 1357 of a total 1869 yards by RB/FB. Thats 73%

by Conspiracy* on Jan 10, 2012 10:29 PM CST up reply actions

You beat me to it by just a few minutes!

Except my math was 1357 of the total 1818 yards, which was 74%. Whatever, pretty much the same. I got my info from ESPN’s stats, but since they are far too busy worshiping the SEC/proclaiming overused nicknames such as “Honey Badger”, who knows if they are 100% accurate. I’m guessing they are pretty close though.

While we’re at it, here’s a bit more- He had 284 of the 388 total carries by RBs/FBs, or 73%. Therefore, Burkhead got 74% of the yards with 73% of the carries. What’s that all mean? Probably exactly what we already know- Burkhead is a consistent, trustworthy running back who is doing exactly what we need him to do with the carries that he’s given.

I do think we’ll see the younger guys a bit more next year. All three of them are bigger “home-run” threats than Burkhead, but none of them really earned a lot of trust this year. That’s to be expected from 99% of true freshman though, and I think with time they will all turn out to be very fine running backs.

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by Billgrip on Jan 10, 2012 10:41 PM CST up reply actions

I think we'll have more opportunities to use the young guys as a change in pace next season.

I really think Beck is still tweaking this offense. Next season we’ll be able to use the attention on Burkhead to spread the ball around.

Play for the love of the game. A Cornhusker through feast or famine. That's the Nebraska way.

by Salt Creek and Stadium on Jan 10, 2012 10:51 PM CST up reply actions

So that still shows the same result

as the totals including Martinez. Most #1 backs have a higher percentage of yards than they do of the carries. Take the numbers of the back in the B1G I considered the closest to Rex’s peer, Silas Redd. He had 47% of PSU’s carries but 59% of their total rushing yards, a wide gap.

Rex’s percentage signifies either no real talent gap in the RBs and therefore should be split more 50/50, or that he is in for too many carries and isn’t able to get the most out of them. I’m feeling that the latter is the Huskers’ situation. Either way, it calls for more carries from the young-ins.

by brutus1382 on Jan 11, 2012 1:18 AM CST up reply actions